The forethought of Themistocles

1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Holladay
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Middle Helladic ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Grave Goods

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.

A gold diadem from Aegina

1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-182
Author(s):  
Reynold Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Middle Helladic ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Grave Goods

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.

scholarly journals Before the Celts: Cosmology, Landscape and Folklore in Neolithic Northwest Iberia

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Fabio Silva
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Celtic Studies ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Northwest Iberia

This paper applies a combined landscape and skyscape archaeology methodology to the study of megalithic passage graves in the North-west of the Iberian Peninsula, in an attempt to glimpse the cosmology of these Neolithic Iberians. The reconstructed narrative is found to be supported also by a toponym for a local mountain range and associated folklore, providing an interesting methodology that might be applied in future Celtic studies. The paper uses this data to comment on the ‘Celticization from the West’ hypothesis that posits Celticism originated in the European Atlantic façade during the Bronze Age. If this is the case, then the Megalithic phenomenon that was widespread along the Atlantic façade would have immediately preceded the first Celts.

Part I. Neolithic Mycenae

1957 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 195-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. B. Wace
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Fabric Hand ◽  
A Site

Stamatakes's excavations in the Grave Circle area revealed, although it was not recognized until much later, that Mycenae had been inhabited in the Early Bronze Age, the Early Helladic Period. This was confirmed by subsequent researches which produced Early Helladic material from the foot of the Ramp, outside the Grave Circle, beneath the South House and below the Palace. Now the recent work of Dr. Papademetriou and ourselves has yielded fresh evidence. He has found more E.H. material in Schliemann's Grave Circle and some possible Neolithic sherds as well. In the area of the Prehistoric Cemetery outside the Cyclopean walls to the north-west of the Lion Gate we have found in a mixed unstratified layer at the eastern foot of the mound or tumulus which covered the dome of the ‘Tomb of Aegisthus’ many fragments of E.H. pottery, both decorated and plain. Since the plain E.H. ware found is of a simple, thickish fabric hand-polished and usually of a dull red or of a mud colour, we had at times wondered whether some of these fragments might not almost be classed as Neolithic. This was especially so in the case of some of the fragments from the lowest strata at the foot of the Ramp. Unfortunately these fragments were lost during the war in the Nauplia Museum and cannot now be checked.The discovery of Neolithic B pottery at the Argive Heraeum, and still more recently Dr. Caskey's most successful excavations at Lerna, encouraged us in the idea that a site like Mycenae was probably inhabited in Neolithic times also. Since the Early Helladic material is not stratified, except in areas like the foot of the Ramp or below the South House, it was hardly to be expected that Neolithic remains, if found, would be stratified. It is always possible, however, that some part of the site, not yet explored, may have escaped later disturbance or overbuilding. We have therefore now paid particular attention to the unstratified debris found above the Prehistoric Cemetery at the eastern foot of the Aegisthus mound. Among this we have found two sherds which are in our opinion almost certainly Neolithic.

Communities of the dead

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Harding
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
North West ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
The North ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Burial Grounds

Burial monuments of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, individual or in cemeteries, were often located in topographically prominent positions, or in zones of concentration that might qualify as ‘sacred landscapes’. In the Iron Age by contrast it is not obvious what governed the choice of location for cemeteries and smaller burial grounds, whether they were sited in relationship to settlement or whether there were traditional locations dedicated to burial. For some of the eastern Yorkshire square-ditched barrow cemeteries Bevan (1999: 137–8) considered proximity to water may have been a factor. Dent (1982: 450) stressed the siting of Arras type barrows and cemeteries adjacent to linear boundaries and trackways, a factor that is very apparent in the linear spread at Wetwang Slack. Though we may distinguish burials that are integrated into settlements from those that are segregated into cemeteries, therefore, there is no implication that cemeteries were remote from settlements. In fact, the contrary is often demonstrably the case. There is some evidence that small cemeteries or burial grounds were located immediately beyond the enclosure earthworks of hillforts. At Maiden Castle, Dorset (Fig. 3.1; Wheeler, 1943), the picture is prejudiced by the dominance of the ‘war cemetery’ in the eastern entrance, but the reality is that there had been a burial ground just outside the ramparts well before the conquest. A possible parallel is Battlesbury, where Mrs Cunnington (1924: 373) recorded the discovery of human skeletons from time to time in a chalk quarry just outside the north-west entrance to the camp. Some of these were contracted inhumations, and apparently included one instance of an adult and child buried together. The attribution of a ‘war cemetery’ (Pugh and Crittall, 1957: 118 evidently refers to this external burial site, which should be distinguished from the burials excavated more than a century earlier by William Cunnington within the hillfort at its north-west end (Colt Hoare, 1812: 69). Iron Age inhumations were also found, just within the rampart circuit, at Grimthorpe in Yorkshire (Mortimer, 1905: 150–2; Stead, 1968: 166–73). One of these was the well-known warrior burial, found in 1868.

An Iron Age Hill-Fort at Grimthorpe, Yorkshire, England

1969 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 148-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. M. Stead ◽  
M. Jarman ◽  
Angela Fagg ◽  
E. S. Higgs ◽  
C. B. Denston
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Circular Area ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
White Horse ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Grave Goods

The Iron Age hill-fort at Grimthorpe (Grid reference SE.816535) in the parish of Millington, East Riding of Yorkshire, is on the western edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, with a commanding position over the Vale of York. There is an uninterrupted view to the White Horse on the Hambleton Hills, 25 miles to the north-west; beyond York, 13 miles to the west, to the Pennines; and to the south 25 miles to the chimneys of Keadby and Scunthorpe. To the west and south the land slopes away to the Vale of York, and to the north and east there is a sharper fall to Given Dale and Whitekeld Dale. The hill-fort defences follow the 520 feet contour, and enclose an approximately circular area of eight acres (fig. 1).A traditional reference may be preserved in the field-name—Bruffs—perhaps a variation of ‘Brough’, which ‘refers in all cases to ancient camps, usually Roman ones’. But all surface indications have now been obliterated by ploughing, and even a century ago there was little more to be seen. John Phillips in 1853 noticed ‘unmistakable traces of ancient but unascertainable occupation’, and in 1871 an excavation by J. R. Mortimer located ‘the filled up inner ditch of a supposed camp’. But Mortimer was not concerned with the settlement; his interest had been aroused by the discovery, in 1868, of a burial with rich grave-goods, including metalwork with La Tène ornament, in a chalk-pit within the south-west sector of the hill-fort.

scholarly journals Neolithic pits and Late Bronze Age roundhouses in the Upper Ury Valley, Aberdeenshire

2019 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Moore ◽  
Claire Lingard ◽  
Melanie Johnson ◽  
Ann Clarke ◽  
Mhairi Hastie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Gas Pipeline ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Pipeline Route ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Small Tributary

Archaeological monitoring of works on a gas pipeline route in Aberdeenshire, north-west of Inverurie, resulted in the discovery and excavation of several groups of Neolithic pits and four Bronze Age roundhouses. The Neolithic pits were concentrated around the Shevock Burn, a small tributary of the Ury, and in the East and North Lediken areas to the north. They produced significant assemblages of Early Neolithic Impressed Ware and of Modified Carinated Bowl. The Bronze Age roundhouses included the heavily truncated remains of a post-built structure near Pitmachie, the remains of a pair of ring ditch structures near Little Lediken Farm, and another ring ditch structure close to Wrangham village.

Excavation of Four Barrows, and a Middle Bronze Age Cremation Cemetery, at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-89
Author(s):  
Richard Massey ◽  
Elaine L. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

Excavation at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire, investigated features identified in a previous evaluation. Area A included ring ditches representing two barrows. Barrow 1.1 held 40 secondary pits, including 34 cremation-related deposits of Middle Bronze Age date, and Barrow 1.2 had five inserted pits, including three cremation graves, one of which dated to the earlier Bronze Age, and was found with an accessory cup. A number of pits, not all associated with cremation burials, contained well-preserved urns of the regional Deverel-Rimbury tradition and occasional sherds from similar vessels, which produced a closely-clustered range of eight radiocarbon dates centred around 1300 BC. Of ten pits in Area C, three were cremation graves, of which one was radiocarbon-dated to the Early Bronze Age and associated with a collared urn, while four contained only pyre debris. Barrow 1.3, in Area E, to the south, enclosed five pits, including one associated with a beaker vessel, and was surrounded by a timber circle. Area F, further to the south-west, included two pits of domestic character with charcoal-rich fills and the remains of pottery vessels, together with the probable remains of a ditched enclosure and two sets of paired postholes. Area H, located to the north-west of Area E, partly revealed a ring ditch (Barrow 1.4), which enclosed two pits with charcoal-rich fills, one with a single Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age potsherd, and the other burnt and worked flint. A further undated pit was situated to the east of Barrow 1.4. The cremation cemetery inserted into Barrow 1.1 represents a substantial addition to the regional record of Middle Bronze Age cremation burials, and demonstrates important affinities with the contemporary cemeteries of the Stour Valley to the west, and sites on Cranborne Chase, to the north-west.

scholarly journals The Catacomb Cultures of the North-West Caspian Steppe: 14C Chronology, Reservoir Effect, and Paleodiet

Radiocarbon ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 713-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
N I Shishlina ◽  
J van der Plicht ◽  
R E M Hedges ◽  
E P Zazovskaya ◽  
V S Sevastyanov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Stomach Contents ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Stable Isotope Ratios ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Bone Material ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Bronze Age

For the Bronze Age Catacomb cultures of the North-West Caspian steppe area in Russia, there is a conflict between the traditional relative archaeological chronology and the chronology based on radiocarbon dates. We show that this conflict can be explained largely by the fact that most dates have been obtained on human bone material and are subject to 14C reservoir effects. This was demonstrated by comparing paired 14C dates derived from human and terrestrial herbivore bone collagen. In addition, values of stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) and analysis of food remains from vessels and the stomach contents of buried individuals indicate that a large part of the diet of these cultures consisted of fish and mollusks, and we conclude that this is the source of the reservoir effect.

Late Bronze Age Lynchet-Settlements on Plumpton Plain, Sussex

1935 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 16-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Holleyman ◽  
E. Cecil Curwen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
North Edge ◽  
North And South

Plumpton plain is situated on the top of the South Downs, roughly 600 feet above sea level, six miles north-east of Brighton and four miles north-west of Lewes (fig. 1). From its western end a broad spur slopes gently southwards from the northern escarpment of the Downs, lying between Moustone Valley on the south-east and Faulkners Bottom on the west. Most of this Downland is covered with a dense scrub of gorse, thorn and bramble, and with large patches of bracken and heather. A series of broad paths running roughly at right angles with one another has been cut through this vegetation to facilitate the preservation of game. Along the main ridge of the spur running north and south is a broad gallop which, at a height of 600 feet O.D., passes through a group of earthworks situated 1500 feet from the north edge of the Downs and 2300 feet east of Streathill Farm. This group was the primary object of bur investigations and will be referred to as Site A (fig. 2).Site B (fig. 3) lies a quarter of a mile to the south-east of Site A on a small lateral spur jutting between the twin heads of Moustone Bottom. The only visible evidence of prehistoric occupation was a quantity of coarse gritty sherds and calcined flints on the surface to the south-east of a low bank and ditch which runs across the spur.Several groups of lynchets enclosing square Celtic fields are to be seen in the neighbourhood of these two sites. They lie principally to the south-east of Site A and to the south of Site B.

scholarly journals Topography and reconstruction of historical mines of the Kagarlinsk mining-metallurgical center (Bronze Age)

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-130
Author(s):  
V.V. Noskevich ◽  
N.V. Fedorova ◽  
A.M. Yuminov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
South Urals ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
North East ◽  
Mine Dumps ◽  
The North ◽  
Loading And Unloading ◽  
The Bronze Age

Kagarlinsk copper deposits have been worked out since IV millennium BC and till the end of II millennium BC in the steppes of the South Urals and a huge amount of copper have been recovered from their ores in the Bronze Age. Geophysical studies have been conducted in the south periphery of the Kagarlinsk ore field not far from Belousovka village at the mining-processing complex with the length of 900—1000 m and 30—70 m size across. Something like a hundred of small open-cut mines from 3 to 12 m in diameter are fixed in this area with near side mine dumps, sites for assortment of extracted ore adjoined at stove pits 3—5 m in diameter for burning up lump ores. Thorough topographic, gradient magnetic and geo-radar surveys have been fulfilled in areas where typical objects: open-cut mine, a pit for pilot burning up ores, slime sites and ore store are situated. As a result new data have been obtained on the structure of ancient outputs and associated technological facilities. Numerous magnetic anomalies revealed near the open-cut mine and a pit testify that copper ore encloses sufficient amount of iron and pilot assortment of the burned up ore took place near the pits. According to the results of geo-radar survey special features of pit-stove have been reconstructed and 3D model of the ancient open-cut mine built. A pit for burning up ore was cone-shaped with steps for comfort of loading and unloading ore. Its bottom diameter was 5m, the principal mine was 1—1.5 m in diameter and depth rough 3 m, the volume of the pit did not exceed 13—15 m3. Transversal size of a mine was 7—9 m and the depth was up to 4 m. The open-cut mine had steep sides from the north, east and south and in the west the relief was mildly sloping. The entrance to the open-cut mine was from the west. Initial depth of the open-cut mine differed from the present day surface by 2—3 m. According to our appraisal the amount of extracted ore in this mine was 25—30 tons. Taking into account the overall number of mines some 2—2.5 thousand tons of bulk ore were extracted during operation of Belousovka mining-metallurgical complex.

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